DESCRIPTION (Adapted from Application): Funding is sought to support two symposia, Mitosis and Meiosis: Integrating Parts with the Whole and Complexity within Cell Signaling Pathways, at the thirty-eighth annual meeting of the ASCB. The meeting will be held in San Francisco from December 12-16, 1998 and is expected to attract a large international audience. R. Bruce Nicklas of Duke University will serve as chair and speak in the symposium on Mitosis and meiosis; the other two speakers will be Anthony Hyman of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and Shirleen Roeder of Yale University. The symposium is scheduled on Sunday, December 13, 1998, at 8:00 a.m. Richard Assoian of the University of Pennsylvania will serve as chair and speak in the symposium on Complexity within Cell Signaling Pathways; the other two speakers will be Roger Brent of Molecular Sciences Institute and Martin Schwartz of The Scripps Research Institute. The symposium will take place on Monday, December 14, 1998, at 10:30 a.m. NIH funding will be applied to the direct expenses of the symposium: Moscone Convention Center room rental, audio-visual equipment and room set-up as well as the travel and logistical expenses of the three speakers at each symposium (economy travel, meals and registration). No honoraria will be provided. Symposium speakers are leaders in their fields of cell, molecular and developmental biology. Nine symposia, which will be presented free of major scheduling conflicts, will be held over four days and evenings. More focused scientific sessions will be represented by 24 minisymposia. Two co-chairs for each minisymposium are invited by the Program Committee. They in turn choose four additional speakers from among submitted abstracts. Many of these speakers are first authors, thus enabling many junior scientists a first opportunity to speak at a major international meeting. The broadest aspect of the meeting is represented in four poster sessions of about 750 poster presentations each. As is the tradition at ASCB meetings, each poster will be on display for 22 hours to maximize exposure for these presentations. The ASCB is also proud of the many educational, career, grant writing and social policy program offered by its several active committees, including the Women in Cell Biology, Education, Minorities Affairs and Public Policy Committees. Additional highlights include award presentations and lectures to be bestowed for contributions to science as well as to public policy, science education and for mentorship. Each symposium is held in a room with the capacity to seat 5,000 people; experience has shown that rooms largely fill for the major ASCB symposia.